Key result
Paediatric atrial fibrillation is rare without congenital heart disease and requires careful evaluation for concealed cardiac pathology, with risk increasing with age, BMI, obesity, and athletics.
Paediatric atrial fibrillation is a rare condition that necessitates careful evaluation for underlying structural or inherited cardiac pathologies to prevent complications like cardiomyopathy and thromboembolism.
May prompt careful evaluation for concealed pathology in paediatric AF; leaves open optimal screening and management strategies.
Paediatric atrial fibrillation (AF) is an infrequent entity in the absence of congenital heart disease as children are unlikely to have the structural and functional changes in their myocardium to sustain the arrhythmia. Any child presenting with this arrhythmia needs to be carefully evaluated for concealed cardiac pathology such as cardiomyopathy or inherited arrhythmia syndromes. AF leading to a haemodynamically unstable patient is rare and should prompt synchronised cardioversion, while stable patients can be discussed with a paediatric cardiologist. Tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy and thromboembolism are possible complications of sustained AF and anticoagulation is usually indicated to prevent the latter. Risk of AF increases with age and body mass index. Obesity and athletics are known risk factors and recurrence can be seen even in the absence of any identifiable underlying pathology.
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Taylor et al. (2021) conducted a review in Paediatric atrial fibrillation. Paediatric atrial fibrillation is rare without congenital heart disease and requires careful evaluation for concealed cardiac pathology, with risk increasing with age, BMI, obesity, and athletics.
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